


The one where Terra almost gives Aqua an ulcer by working on his car

by PescaTurian



Series: Everyone's Happy and Nobody Dies - A Modern Kingdom Hearts AU [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aqua is going to school for psychology cuz of course she is, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Shot, Pining, Terra is a mechanic of sorts, Terraqua - Freeform, Ven is still trying to find himself, he's a nerd who names his cars, of sorts, poisoning of sorts, these two oblivous idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24879952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PescaTurian/pseuds/PescaTurian
Summary: Mechanic-to-be Terra comes in from working on his car, but something's not right. Can Aqua help him? And more importantly, will these two idiots figure out that the other doesn't want to be "just friends"?
Relationships: Aqua/Terra (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: Everyone's Happy and Nobody Dies - A Modern Kingdom Hearts AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799530
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	The one where Terra almost gives Aqua an ulcer by working on his car

The door between the garage and laundry room quickly opened, and then slammed closed, harder than normal. It made Aqua, who was sitting on the living room couch, look up from her copy of _The Odyssey_ \- which she has been reading while taking a break from studying for her psychology final - cocking her head to the side inquisitively, waiting for the other laundry room door to slide open, and for Terra to step through. Instead, she heard loud and quick stomping, but the noise stopped, and she heard the laundry room faucet turn on. Based on the pitch and tone of the sound, it was at practically maximum pressure. _Huh… is he mad at something? Normally he doesn't slam the door, 'cause he knows it freaks me out._

Terra had come over earlier that day to work on his project car, an old Nissan Fairlady 250Z, which she only knew the model name of because he talked about it all the time. Though she did have to admit that the car was super adorable, and almost seemed to have a personality of its own. He had named it Aurora, after his secret Disney princess crush - which all straight/bi guys have, even if they try and hide it - and the car was his current passion, and sometimes she felt like he loved that thing more than her and Ventus, his two best friends in the world. Ventus was her housemate, and pretty much the only reason why Terra wasn't also their housemate was because his parents lived like a block from the trade school he was going to in his pursuit to become a mechanic. 

She was about to get up to go see what was the matter, when she heard a weird running water noise that was different from the normal noise of the faucet, almost like… gurgling? Then he turned off the faucet and busted through the laundry room's inner door, and speed-walked into the kitchen, which was located next to the laundry room and living room, and walked straight to the cupboard, grabbing a cup. He then opened the fridge, grabbed the milk jug and poured some milk into his glass with quick, deft motions. Aqua carefully placed her bookmark into Homer's second brick of a book, and quickly but lovingly set it down on the couch. She got up and walked over to him. When she saw what he was doing, she was a bit worried, but mostly just perplexed. 

"Are you - are you… Gurgling with milk?" Strange as it seemed to her, he was most definitely doing just that, swishing a bit of milk around in his mouth and then spitting it into the sink, just to start the process over again. 

Terra made a _hmmf_ noise and held a finger up, in a universal signal for "Wait for me to finish." After taking another swig and spitting it out, he put the glass down and walked over to Aqua, noticing the confusion in her eyes. He patted her hair, which, like always, she pretended to try and dodge, while secretly enjoying it. Which he most definitely knew, and he probably knew that she knew that he knew, but that was just part of the game they would play: Terra would do a thing like pat her head, or tickle her, or press his cold hand to the side of her neck when she was trying to stay warm, and she would pretend to hate it and/or try and get away, but purposely unsuccessfully, all the while glaring at him or raising an eyebrow. 

Everytime she hung out with him she felt an almost electrical current running between them, which she definitely didn't feel between her and Ventus, whom she loved deeply, but more in a brotherly sort of way. She knew she was very close to falling in love with Terra, but she wouldn't let herself fall all the way until she knew he felt the same way about her; she had gotten hurt too many times before - three times to be exact - and she refused to let there be a fourth. Aqua was pretty sure that Terra felt the same way about her, but she wasn't certain, and was worried that if she broached the subject that he would get weirded out, and get scared off. Because, for all of his intelligence in all things mechanical and electrical, he could be a bit… Unobservant of emotions and social cues, and who knows, maybe he didn't actually feel that way about her, and didn't know she liked him, and was just having fun and being nice. She was terrified of losing him, so she always kept her mouth shut about romance. She was almost certain-sure that Ven knew about her feelings for Terr, because he was a guru when it came to emotions and always seemed to watch them both like a hawk. The way he talked circles around the subject made it seem like he didn't mind, nor that he felt like a third wheel or anything, in fact Ven seemed to encourage it, in his own sort of way. 

Aqua querked an eyebrow up at him. "So… You gonna tell me why you were gurgling with milk?" She stepped closer to him, putting a hand on her hip. "Is this some kind of new drug thing I don't know about?" she asked him, ever the worried mom-friend, even though Terra had never done drugs or even gotten drunk in his life. She still worried though, because her brother had lost his life to an overdose when she was in high school. 

"Gods no! I would never do that, you'd ream me a new one if I did! And I wouldn't wanna worry you…" he said, genuine bafflement and concern warring on his face. "No, though you'll probably think this is just as bad… If I tell you, will you promise not to get mad at me? Don't worry, it's not actually that bad, but I know you're still probably gonna get upset, because you're the mom friend and you care about me. Promise not to yell at me?" 

She looked him in the eyes, searchingly, making sure he was telling the truth. He seemed legitimately concerned over making her mad, but he also seemed to be telling the truth about drugs, and about the non-seriousness of whatever it was he had done. She took a deep breath and held out her pinkie, wanting to show how serious she was about her promise. Even though it would probably seem silly to outsiders, in their little trio, pinkie promises were serious business. If you broke a pinkie promise, the other two would give you the silent treatment for anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the intensity of the particular promise you broke. Luckily, they hardly ever broke those sorts of promises, so they hardly ever had to ignore each other or be ignored. 

Terra linked his pinkie with hers, and Aqua kept their pinkies hooked to each others' for a few seconds longer than was probably strictly necessary. Just because she hadn't told him her feelings yet, didn't mean she wouldn't take advantage of any and all opportunities for physical contact with him. "Okay, so…" He stopped, inhaling a bit shakily. "Well, I was working on Aurora…" Aqua nodded, encouraging him to continue. "And I had to get some gas in the ol' girl. But something was blocking the hole in my canister."

She gasped, starting to pick up on what he was saying. "Oh gods, please tell me you didn't just put the tip in your mouth and inhale!" 

"Hey, you promised you wouldn't yell…" Terra retorted, a look of unalloyed hurt in his eyes. 

Aqua took another deep breath. "I know, and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice, I swear. I won't do it again…" she went over to their kitchen table and sat down at her normal spot, pushing her psychology books and Ven's Social Studies textbook to the side, to clear a spot for Terra to sit next to her. While she waited patiently for him to continue his tale of woe, she took a sip of her now slightly too lukewarm chai latte that she'd forgotten she'd made earlier during her study session. Terra came and sat down at the spot she'd cleared for him. 

She avoided eye contact with him, worried she'd get worked up again if she looked into his azure eyes. So instead she stared at the wood grain pattern on the warm-toned mahogany table that Ven's twin brother, Vanitas, had given them when Ven had first moved out of their parents' house, following the lines with her eyes, admiring the whorls and motes in it. It had taken Terr and Ven forever to heft the dang thing up the stairs, with Aqua sassily directing them. Afterward she had kissed them both on the cheek to say thanks. Ven didn't seem to care about it one way or the other, but Terr blushed ever so slightly, and had quickly dipped back outside to grab more stuff from the car, an unreadable expression on his finely chiseled face. 

After a few more seconds Terra continued. "I didn't inhale, but I did put my mouth on the thing. I blew on it, to try and remove the obstruction. It worked a little bit too well. Whatever it was that was blocking it moved, and a li'l bit got in my mouth… I immediately spat it out, and spat a few more times for good measure. I rushed inside to rinse it out with water and then milk, 'cause I read somewhere one time that it helps with gas and such."

"Did you accidentally swallow any of it? Do I need to take you to Urgent Care? Or should I call poison control?" She fired the questions off immediately, grabbing her phone and starting to Google 'gasoline poison control'. Aqua was far more concerned than angry, though she knew that the anger would probably come later - though she definitely wouldn't show it to Terra, due to the pinkie promise. 

"No, I didn't swallow any, and I think I reacted quick enough to not need to go into the doctors or anything." He gently put his hand on her arm, rubbing his thumb back and forth reassuringly. She instinctively leaned into the touch, letting his calm voice and demeanor wash over her, taking some deep breaths. She continued to search through Google till she found a calculator of sorts for poison, on Poison Control's website.

"How much got in your mouth? How long did you have it in your mouth? Was it just gasoline in it, or was it a hybrid mixture?" She asked him questions, rapid-fire. He raised an eyebrow at the last question.

"I only got like… A sip's worth in my mouth, and I probably only had it in there for a few seconds, at most. And it was just gasoline, though I'm kinda surprised that you remembered that some of the cars I work on use hybrid mixtures. I didn't think you cared about that sort of stuff," he replied, raising the eyebrow a bit further. _Gods, but he's got gorgeous eyebrows_. Aqua thought, getting momentarily distracted from the situation at hand. Terra stared at her, that same eyebrow of his now practically soaring up to the ceiling, obviously waiting for her to reply. 

She shook her head almost imperceptibly, to snap herself out of her reverie. She bit her bottom lip a bit. "I mean… You obviously care a lot about 'that sort of stuff' so of course I'm gonna pick up on it, because I care about you and enjoy listening to you talk," she said in a small voice, looking back down at the table at that last bit. She really did enjoy listening to him talk. His voice was so damn sexy, and the cadence of it was both soothing and a tad arousing at times. She blushed a bit at that last thought. 

Terra smirked at that last part, continuing to rub small circles on her arm. "Oh really now?" His knee gently bumped hers under the table, in a playful sort of way. She started filling out the information for the poison 'calculator' to distract her from how tantalizingly warm his hand and knee were on her skin. She tapped 'next' on the site, and then felt her chest tighten as she read the possible symptoms of what he might have ingested, her breath catching at the words 'vomiting' and 'choking'. 

She looked up at him, furrowing her eyebrows. She half-heartedly smacked his enticingly muscled bicep, but like always there was no power behind the hit. "Don't tease me at a time like this, ya' jerk. Now, are you feeling nauseous? Short of breath? D'you feel a need to cough?" She rattled off the questions quickly, hardly stopping for breath between sentences. Before he could even answer any of the questions she put the back of her hand on his forehead and then from one cheek to the other. _Hmmm… no fever…_ She let the back of her hand linger on his cheek for a few seconds, feigning a difficulty in telling if he felt too warm. 

He let out a sigh of obviously only half legitimate long-suffering, rolling his eyes a little at her fussing. "No, no, and no. I feel fine, though I am a little tired," he replied, letting go of her arm seemingly unwillingly. "Wanna hang out wi' me on the couch while I nap? Gotta make sure I don't present any symptoms while I sleep, and that I actually wake up afterwards, right?" At that last word he tenderly grasped her wrist, tugging on it a bit, urging her to stand up. 

Aqua let him help her up, worrying over the possibility of him not waking up. While she knew Terra said that mostly just as an excuse, she knew there was a real, yet ever so slight possibility of that happening. She took a steadying breath, willing herself to calm down, though she could feel tears starting to well up in her eyes, damning her tear ducts for betraying her. As soon as he looked at her face and saw the wetness in her eyes he immediately pulled her into a hug, wrapping his big arms around her, and tucking her head under his. She unconsciously grabbed onto the back of his ratty old shirt, not even minding in the current situation that it was covered in oil stains and smelled like gasoline. She started sobbing quietly, letting the tears flow freely down her face and onto his shirt, which had Simba and Nala on it. 

Terra held onto her while she cried, his hands resting on the small of her back, right on the dimples there. "I'm okay, I promise… I'm so, so sorry for making you worry… I just thought you needed to know, and I couldn't bear the thought of lying to you about it…" His voice was a tad husky from emotion, and damn if it didn't make her fall just a little bit more in love with him. 

"Ih-it s'kay, I'm gl-ah-ad you told me… S-sorry for getting your chest soaking wet with muh-my tears…" Aqua said, hyperventilating slightly. She hated when she did that. She took some deep, steadying breaths, squeezing Terr harder. After a few more seconds she reluctantly disengaged from the hug, gently pushing him back a bit to stare up at his face. To make sure he truly was as fine as he said he was. After confirming that he wasn't gonna faint or go blind or anything any time soon, she walked to the couch, moving her book off of the spot Terra usually sat in. He sat down in his spot, and patted the middle seat on the couch. Aqua instantly sat down, with her knees up in the fetal position. She leaned against Terra, hugging her knees tightly and taking deep, slow breaths, in a probably vain attempt to rein in her residual terror. 

Aqua could feel his gaze on her as he put his arm around her shoulders; he began rubbing his thumb back and forth gently over the sleeve-hem on her blouse. She glanced up and over at him. Seeing him looking down at her with such concern almost made her feel bad about crying. Almost. She wanted to make sure that she scared him away from ever pulling a trick like that again.

"You can go ahead and sleep now, I'll be fine, I promise," she said fervently. He furrowed his eyebrows a bit, staring down her intently and searchingly, like a mamma bear making sure her cub is unhurt. A moment or two later he must've seen something reassuring; giving her a teeny, lopsided smile, he slowly closed his eyes, pulling her ever so slightly closer to him. She nuzzled happily into the crook of his shoulder, her head resting on his chest a bit. She unconsciously made a small squeak of contentment. Terra let out a good-natured huff at that, a big ol' Cheshire-cat grin lighting up his face for a moment. 

She kept sending sneaky glances up at him for the next few minutes, but he seemed to be perfectly fine, so she picked up her well-worn copy of _The Odyssey_ and started reading from where she left off, quickly falling back into the steady rhythm of the epic poem. This was her third time reading it, but it never failed to make her gasp, cry, and laugh in turns. It was probably one of her favorite epics. She kept an ear out for his breathing, making sure it was okay, and waiting for the tell-tale slowing down to let her know he was asleep. 

She suddenly felt the absence of his hand on her shoulder and frowned a tiny bit, expecting him to move it to rest on the back of the couch, or remove his arm out from around her. But instead of doing either of those things, she was surprised to then feel his hand rest on her hip. Then she realized her shirt must've slid up a bit when she sat down, because his hand was partially on her bare hip. Her heart skipped a beat at that. She held her breath, feeling that if she breathed it might somehow ruin the moment, expecting that at any second he'd realize and then remove his hand. Desperately hoping against hope that he wouldn't. He didn't. Instead, all he did was shift his hand backwards, slowly but steadily until his thumb was on the slit of bare skin; and since his hands were so big the rest of his hand was practically on the side of her butt. She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks a bit at that last realization. Aqua tried to wrest her breathing and heartbeat back under her own control, and succeeded after a few seconds. She then reveled in the feeling of his hand on her skin, willing the moment to never end.

Eventually she heard his breathing and heartbeat slow down. Then he started snoring, almost imperceptibly, and Aqua figured she must've still been a bit high on euphoria, because she thought it was the cutest snoring ever, even though normally she probably would've hated it. At least from anyone besides Terra, that is. She again carefully marked her spot in the book and put it down lovingly. She snuggled up to him, focusing on that one spot of direct physical contact between them, feeling the entirety of her whole being - every last strand of DNA and electron - dial in on it; like there was nothing else left in existence except that moment, and that spot of thrilling physical connection. She wanted to stay awake until he woke up, so that way she could experience every moment of that physical touch before he inevitably woke up and the tenuous moment broke. Whatever happened after that was for the future; right now she wanted to focus solely on the present. Well, she wanted to, but the slow and steady cadence of his breathing eventually lulled her into a light sleep.

They lay there snuggled up together like that for a few hours, and Aqua was about to fall into a deeper sleep when she was woken up by Terra shifting slightly, and she figured that that meant that sleep time was basically over. Instead, he casually moved his hand from her hip, and gently placed it on her head. His tightly muscled bicep still resting on her shoulder, and his pinkie was slightly - almost reverently - tangled in her hair. Again she felt her breath catch in her chest and her heart skip a beat, and then stutter back to life, beating faster than before. _Is he even awake? Does he know that he's doing? Can… can he hear how much my heart is fluttering now? Should I acknowledge it in some way?_ At that last thought she realized she'd already unconsciously been doing just that. She'd instinctively leaned into his hand, almost nuzzling it. And then froze. When he didn't move his hand away, she got brave and slowly moved her hand from its spot between her knees, along his outer thigh, then his hip and laid it to rest on his chest, right over his heart. 

She gloried in realizing how fast his heart rate was, feeling it quicken at her touch. Meaning that he was definitely awake, and not stopping her. _He's… He's just as nervous and happy as I am!_ Somehow that made her even more nervous. She mentally steeled herself, and looked up at him, and found herself staring directly into his sapphire eyes. He had already been looking at her, the most adorably large grin on his face. 

Feeling her cheeks heat up, she took her hand off his chest in embarrassment and self-consciousness. "I… I'm sorry.. I-I shouldn't have done that…" she muttered, worried that she'd just complicated things, feeling like an idiot. He probably was just confused because of the gasoline, and probably didn't have any deeper feelings for her. Feelings like the ones she had for him. 

When he made a noise of confusion, she sat up ever so slightly, and quietly tried to put into words what she was feeling. Somehow fitting words around the lump in her throat. "I'm so dumb… You just almost died… and are probably confused… 'Cause of the gasoline, I mean. And I… I took advantage of that. I'm sorry…" she tried swallowing down that lump, but instead, it seemed to expand. A tear slowly fell down her cheek. She felt unable to breathe, expecting that he would agree and gently extricate himself from her. Never to touch her ever again. Instead he reached out and gently cupped her face with his hands, and slowly turned her head to face him, rubbing his thumbs softly along her rather prominent cheekbones. Aqua still couldn't bear to look him in the eyes.

Terra then softly mumbled something that would forever change her world. "Aqua, I think I'm in love with you. I, uhhh… Have been, for a long while now." Her eyes went wide at that, instantly snapping to meet his gaze, and her heart thumped all the harder. She felt as if it was going to beat straight out of her chest. His pupils widened when they made eye contact, and she could feel him sending all of the love in his heart her way. "And it's… It's okay if you don't feel as strongly as I do… I'll live… The only thing I can't live with is knowing I've made you this unhappy." She felt some more small tears leak out of her traitorous tear ducts. He thumbed the tears off her cheek, a look of such tenderness in his eyes that she quickly burst into a torrential downpour of tears, a confused and sheepish, tiny grin on her face. 

He pulled her head forward gently, and moved his hands softly down her face to rest on the sides of her neck, his thumbs gently cupping her jawline. Terra softly kissed the tears off one of her cheeks, a tear of pure happiness sliding down his own. 

"I love you too, Terr, you adorable dork," she replied breathlessly. “But don’t you ever scare me like that again, okay?” She lightly smacked him on the shoulder, though she was careful not to jostle his hands off of her jawline in the process. 

“I can’t make any promises, because I am who I am, but I promise to try my best to not be so thoughtless, ‘kay?” He asked, looking into her eyes imploringly.

She leaned forward, and gave him a gentle kiss of affirmation, their lips barely brushing. As she pulled away, he instinctively leaned towards her, as if reluctant to end the kiss, which made her chortle a bit. _Well at least I know I’m not the only one desperate for this,_ she thought, as she leaned in and kissed him again, but deeper this time. Deeper, and full of so much love that she instinctually hummed with happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been in my drafts for almost a year now, and was inspired by the time my (purely platonic) best friend was an idiot while working on gas-powered RC cars. Don't worry, he was and is perfectly fine. _(Though I made him promise not to be such an idiot in the future *facepalm*)_


End file.
